Massachusetts AG among 17 opposing concealed gun permit bill

Friday

A federal proposal that would require states to recognize concealed handgun permits issued in other states has come under fire from attorneys general in Massachusetts and 16 other states.

A federal proposal that would require states to recognize concealed handgun permits issued in other states has come under fire from attorneys general in Massachusetts and 16 other states.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey signed onto an Oct. 23 letter that 17 state AGs sent to Congressional leaders to oppose a pair of bills called the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. The legislation, according to the letter, would “lead to the death of police officers and civilians, the proliferation of gun traffickers, and acts of terrorism and other mass violence.”

Sponsored by Rep. Richard Hudson, R-North Carolina, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the companion bills would allow people with concealed-carry permits in their home states to carry concealed firearms when visiting another state.

“Our Second Amendment right doesn’t disappear when we cross state lines, and this legislation guarantees that,” Hudson said in a statement. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 is a common sense solution to a problem too many Americans face. It will provide law-abiding citizens the right to conceal, carry and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting state codes or onerous civil suits.”

The letter from the attorneys general came just four days after the publication of a Boston University study that linked more-permissive concealed handgun permits to higher homicide rates. The study, which examined 25 years worth of data, was published Oct. 19 in the American Journal of Public Health.

“The reason that we did this study in the first place is there is this debate over whether having easier access to guns protects the public or endangers the public,” said BU professor of community health sciences Michael Siegel, lead author of the study. “The answer to that question has completely different policy implications.”

There are 29 states with “shall issue” laws, giving law enforcement little or no discretion when it comes to who can obtain a concealed-carry permit. A dozen states allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a special permit.

Massachusetts is among nine states with “may issue” laws, which give law enforcement officials discretion on whether to issue a permit. Police chiefs can deny a permit to someone they determine to be at risk of committing violence, even if the person has no criminal history.

“We have a unique thing in Massachusetts with the ability to judge the suitability of an applicant,” said Mark Leahy, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Chiefs of Police and a retired police chief from Northborough. “While frequently challenged by gun supporters, it’s proven to be a very useful tool. There are many times we have intimate knowledge of people, their behavior and tendencies … Our position is we have strict gun laws and they work in the best interest of our citizens.”

The BU researchers aggregated data from states with shall-issue and may-issue laws. Shall-issue laws were associated with 6.5 percent higher homicide rates, 8.6 percent higher firearm homicide rates and 10.6 percent higher handgun homicide rates. There was no significant association with concealed-carry laws and long-gun or non-firearm homicide rates. The study did not examine the homicide rates for individual states.

Gun control advocates have long argued that more restrictive firearms laws would increase public safety. Many proponents of expanded access to firearms, however, have argued that having more armed people in public would deter or stop would-be criminals from committing violent acts.

“This is not simply a question of ease of access, but is more a question of whether or not specific people who are at a high risk of violence are able to obtain a permit,” Siegel said. “We think it’s not primarily a question of how many people are out there with concealed guns, but the issue of who is out there with concealed guns.”

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